Executive Summary

The State of North Dakota transformed their legislative intern funding management from a laborious, manual Excel spreadsheet-based process into a streamlined, automated workflow using GT eForms and PeopleSoft Insights. The Human Resource Management Services division now manages $500,000 in legislative funding across 63 state agencies through an integrated system that automates request submission, vetting, authorization, hiring tracking, and payment processing while providing real-time visualizations for legislative reporting.

The State’s PeopleSoft Environment

The State of North Dakota operates PeopleSoft across 63 state agencies serving approximately 8,500 employees. Their environment includes:

• PeopleSoft HCM 9.2.50
• Financials 48
• ELM .22
• Portal .14
• PeopleTools 860.22
• Approximately a dozen HR dashboards using PeopleSoft Insights
• GT eForms (upgrading from 3.58 to 3.75)

The Legislative Funding Challenge

The North Dakota legislature allocates $500,000 annually for state agency internships, with each agency eligible to receive up to 50% funding per intern. Managing this program presented significant operational challenges.

The Human Resource Management Services division needed a way for agencies to submit funding requests, have those requests vetted and authorized, track the hire, and process payments once the intern was onboarded. The workflow needed to move from HR to Finance and back to HR, showing a statement of payment when funds were transferred.

The entire process was managed through Excel spreadsheets—a manual, time-consuming approach that made it difficult to track requests, maintain compliance, or provide reporting to the legislature on funding allocation and impact.

A Fully Automated Workflow Solution

Gideon Taylor deployed a comprehensive intelligent process automation solution combining GT eForms for process automation and PeopleSoft Insights for data visualization, built entirely within the state’s existing PeopleSoft framework.

The GT eForms component orchestrates the complete intern funding lifecycle through approximately seven approval stages, with workflow and email notifications throughout. The system uses augmented routing to ensure requests reach the right reviewers at each stage, from initial agency submission through HR review, finance approval, and final payment confirmation.

As Darin Schorsch, HRIS Manager, explained: “We needed a way for agencies to be able to submit a request, for that request to be vetted, for it to be sent back and authorized, for them to start the process of doing the hire, and then report that hire to GT eForms. Then that goes through the rest of the approval process and gets funded.”

The PeopleSoft Insights component provides real-time visualizations of funding allocation and utilization. The development team created custom indexes from the eForms data, which Darin then used to build dashboards that help the Human Resource Management Services division tell the story to the legislature.

“It’s kind of fun to see the digital representation of that data on the screen so we can quickly understand where the money is going and how impactful it is,” Darin noted.

From Spreadsheets to Live Dashboards

One of the most powerful features of the integrated solution is the ability to generate forms directly from the Insights dashboard. With a single button click, the dashboard creates a new intern funding return request, eliminating manual data entry and ensuring consistency between reporting and operational data.

The workflow includes comprehensive audit trails, with all comments and field changes documented directly in the form. This provides the transparency and accountability required for legislative oversight while eliminating the manual record-keeping that plagued the Excel-based process.

Implementation: Nine Months of Collaborative Development

The project required approximately nine months of off-and-on development work. Anita Lemaire served as the chief developer, with Darin Schorsch working on the project about 30% of his time. The timeline included a learning curve as the team discovered GT eForms capabilities.

“There’s a combination of learning what the capabilities of GT were,” Darin explained. “This would be much faster for people that understood and were well aware of the capabilities of GT, whereas we were learning the system.”

The implementation benefited from exceptional technical support from Gideon Taylor. The team consistently received same-day responses to questions, often with multiple follow-ups within the hour. Support staff would acknowledge issues immediately, provide escalation options if needed, and typically schedule meetings for the next day to resolve challenges.

“We would send in a question like ‘how can we do this,’ and we would get responded to that day, multiple times within the hour,” Darin recalled. “Most of the time it’s like, ‘Hey, tomorrow, what time can you guys meet?’ Literally that fast.”

Expanding the Solution

The success of the intern funding automation has sparked plans for additional process improvements. Lisa Berg, Darin’s counterpart at the state, is currently working on a reclassification process using GT eForms.

“There’s no app within PeopleSoft, there’s no process within PeopleSoft for us to capture those types of requests that affect job and position information,” Darin explained. “That is one of the things Lisa is working on with the state right now—to utilize within GT that whole reclassification process.”

The state is also implementing GT eForms Assistant as part of their upgrade to version 3.75, which will further enhance the system’s capabilities.

Looking Forward

As Darin reflected on the transformation: “From using GT, it’s been a real adventure, and it’s really exciting to see the capabilities out there and what you can do with it. You want to find those kinds of people that are interested in making a difference and utilizing tools like this and making jobs easier.”

The solution demonstrates how state agencies can transform manual, spreadsheet-based processes into streamlined digital workflows that improve efficiency, enhance transparency, and provide the real-time insights necessary for effective legislative reporting and decision-making.

Technical Implementation Details

• GT eForms Workflow:
  • Approximately seven approval stages
  • Email notifications and templates throughout the process
  • Augmented routing to appropriate reviewers
  • Comprehensive audit trail with documented comments and field changes
  • Integration with PeopleSoft HCM for hire tracking
  • Integration with Financials for payment processing
  • Statement of payment generation upon fund transfer
• PeopleSoft Insights Integration:
  • Custom index creation from eForms data
  • Real-time visualization dashboards for legislative reporting
  • Funding allocation and utilization tracking by agency
  • One-click form generation from dashboard
  • Visual representation of funding impact and distribution
• System Environment:
  • PeopleSoft HCM 9.2.50
  • PeopleSoft Financials 48
  • GT eForms (upgrading from 3.58 to 3.75)
  • PeopleTools 860.22
  • Implementation includes GT eForms Assistant (in 3.75 upgrade)

Ready to Transform Your PeopleSoft Experience?

Facing similar challenges with manual processes in your PeopleSoft environment? Schedule a complimentary strategic consultation to discover your transformation opportunities.

Building photo © Bobak Ha’Eri / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. Cropped and modified with State of North Dakota seal by Gideon Taylor.